Citrix buys GoToMyPc maker, Expertcity-great day for ASPs

Congratulations to Expertcity and Andreas, John, and Klaus. It has been great to work with you from a board level over the last 4 1/2 years. When the transaction closes, I look forward to writing a little more about how you were able to persevere through some tough times, launch new product, stay focused on leveraging the core screen sharing technology, and build a high growth business in a completely new market. Not only were you an early player in remote access, but you also were one of the first ASPs out there.

Expertcity is not the only ASP making headlines today. Salesforce.com filed to go public and raise $115mm. As I mention in an earlier posting about Google and IPOs, pre-bubble, it took companies 4-6 years from their first round of funding to IPO/acquisition. During the bubble it took 1-2 years. While I am excited about today’s announcements and other recent deals like VMWare (bought by EMC) and Zonelabs (bought by Checkpoint), it is obvious that we have returned to a pre-bubble mentality and the companies that will be significantly rewarded are the ones that embody the philosophy of building real businesses with real revenue and cash flow. Well, isn’t that just business 101? Yes, and this is great news as it is something we can all understand.